Major Risk Factors For Myocardial Infarction

140 patients (89 males and 51 females) aged between 40-89 years were studied to identify the major risk factors among myocardial infarction patients from October 2010 to February 2011 in the intensive care unit ,respiratory care unit, and coronary care unit at Ibn Al-Betar for Cardiac Surgery and Al-kademia Teaching Hospitals in Baghdad city.For achieving this goal, a questionnaire type include data concerning the study was designed and the data were collected by interview method and review of patients records.They were confirmed as myocardial infarction cases by the cardiologists.The results of this study showed that 9.3 % of the sample had no risk factor while the majorty (90.7%) of the sample had at least one or more risk factors,also it's declared that themales (63.6 % ) were at higher risk of myocardial infarction (MI) than the females (36.4%) and most of MI(s) (81.4%) occured in people younger than 69 years old.The prevalent risk factors were hypertension (66.4%) and its prevalent was higher in males (40%) than in females (26.4%) , also high blood cholesterol (61.4%) , smoking(60.7%) , and type 2 diabetes mellitus (52.1%).Smoking was the most prevalent risk factor among males (49.3%) in relation to other risk factors, while hypertension was the main one among females (26.4%).The highprevalence of hypertension,blood cholesterol ,smoking, and diabetes mellitus in this study calls for an action plan by the primary health care team to prevent and control these riskfactors. More effort is needed to improve attendees, knowledge, and promote healthy attitudes and behaviour.